You’ve probably heard that Identity Fraud / Identity Theft is the fastest growing white collar crime in America. As a matter of fact, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) states that Identity Fraud / Identity Theft continues to top the list of complaints for the last 13 consecutive years. And unfortunately it keeps getting worst. The Identity Theft Resource Center states that there was a 32% increase in identity theft related cases reported in 2012 over 2011. Other forms of identity fraud like Medical identity theft and Cyber crime are also on the rise.
But the question still remains; do you need to worry about Identity Fraud / Identity Theft? Well here are 5 reasons why you should be concerned. Of course these are not the most likely results from losing your identity but they do happen and will continue to happen.
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You Could Get Arrested
You lose your wallet and the identity thief steals your driver’s license, passport or other form of ID. They then commit a crime and get caught. When the police ask them for identification, they give them an ID that has their picture but your information. The identity thief is summons to court but they don’t show up. An arrest warrant is now issued against you but you are not aware of it. Suppose you happen to get pulled over for a minor traffic infraction and they run your ID. To your surprise you find out about the arrest warrant out for you and now you have to prove that you were not the one to commit the crime. That is why it is important if you lose your wallet, purse or any other form or ID, you should file a police report and complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) so that is it noted if you need to defend yourself in the future.
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You Could Have Your Wages Garnished
Your identity is stolen and the identity thief runs up bills and transactions using your identity but never pays for them. This is especially prevalent in Medical Identity Theft. For Financial Identity Theft, there are laws that can protect you against these fraudulent changes but that rarely exist for Medical Identity Theft. The business will then attempt to recover their losses and could even garnish your wages. That might be the time when you find out that your identity was stolen and now have to prove that it was not you that ran up the charges.
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It Could Ruin Your Credit
As with the scenario above, if an identity thief makes purchases or transactions using your identity and does not pay them, they could show up on your credit report and ruin your credit file that you have worked so hard to maintain. The burden of proof is now on you to prove that you were not the one that created those transactions. Sometimes this is a difficult and very time consuming process
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You Could Get The Wrong Medical Treatment
If your medical records have been stolen and the identity thief goes to the hospital and has procedures done using your identity, you can have information in your medical records that is not valid for you. For example suppose they run test and find out that the ID thief is not allergic to penicillin but you are. If you later happen to go to the hospital and they check your records and it tells them you are not allergic they might administer penicillin to you causing you harm.
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You Could Cease To Exist
For this scenario let’s assume your driver’s license is stolen. The identity thief creates a new drivers license using your information but with their picture. Now let’s assume the identity thief gets in a fatal accident. A death certificate could be created using your information and now you “cease to exist”. This could have a devastating effect on your family, life insurance, pension, mortgage, etc. You might not find out for a while that you are “dead”. However, when it comes to light, you now have to prove that you are alive which sometimes can be a difficult thing to do even though you are standing in front of the person you are trying to convince!
As you can see with these simple scenarios, Identity Fraud / Identity Theft could have a serious impact on you your family or loved ones. Sometimes it may take many years or you might be stuck having to deal with the effects for the rest of your life!
